1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel organic compounds having nonlinear optical activity, and, more especially, to novel hyperpolarizable organic compounds well suited for inclusion in a matrix material to constitute a component of an electrooptical device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As indicated by J. Zyszs and I. Ledoux, in an article published in L'Echo des Recherches, 1st trimester 1987, under the title "Organic Molecules and Treatment of Optical Signals", the future of optical telecommunications mandates the availability of components fabricated from materials having a strong nonlinear activity, on the second or third order.
Numerous compounds, both organic and inorganic, are used in different forms, such as solutions, liquid crystals, single-crystals, liquid polymer crystals, and the like.
Organic compounds are of great interest, as syntheses of a very wide variety of products, are typically enabled thereby. Furthermore, most organic compounds are highly resistant to deleterious external influences (humidity, acidity, oxidation, etc.) and may be incorporated in such materials as polymer films or the like.
J. F. Nicoud and R. J. Twieg, in their paper entitled "Design and Synthesis of Organic Molecular Compounds for Efficient Second Harmonic Generation", Ed. D. S. Chemla and J. Zyss (1987), report several molecules capable of nonlinear optical activity.
These molecules have carbon chain skeletons typically containing aromatic rings substituted, on the one hand, by electron donating groups and, on the other, by electron accepting groups.
The dislocation of electrons generates strong hyperpolarizabilities on the third and second order, when the molecule is noncentrosymmetric.
Large scale research efforts are continuously underway to discover and synthesize novel compounds having a nonlinear optical activity.